In an open letter sent today, over twenty health, union and environmental organisations call on Prime Minister Harper to end his support for the asbestos trade.

Harper is today holding his second rally in Asbestos, Quebec (population around 7,000 in a country of 33 million), seeking votes by promoting himself as the political leader most dedicated to the asbestos industry.

“We call on you to put people’s lives ahead of politics,” said Dr Kapil Khatter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. “Canada’s leading medical authorities have all told you that the export of asbestos is medically and morally indefensible and will lead to an epidemic of asbestos-related disease and death overseas.”

Canada was the world’s biggest asbestos exporter in the last century, but the asbestos industry is now bankrupt and about to die out. The last operating asbestos mine in Canada is in Thetford Mines, Quebec. It is under bankruptcy protection and is laying off some of its 350 workers because its asbestos deposit will soon be exhausted.

“Public policy should be based on science, not on politics,” said Christian Simard, executive director, Nature Québec. “The science is indisputable that all forms of asbestos are deadly. Not a single reputable authority supports P.M. Harper’s policy that asbestos can be safely used.“

“Canada is becoming known as an immoral asbestos pusher and as an enemy of global public health,” said Kathleen Ruff, senior human rights adviser to the Rideau Institute. “This is not the role Canadians want to play in the world.”

Harper has promised to block an upcoming meeting of the U.N. Environmental Convention (Rotterdam Convention) so as to prevent chrysotile asbestos being listed as a hazardous substance. Chrysotile asbestos represents 100% of the global asbestos trade.

“P.M. Harper is the only national leader in Canada and in the Western world to promote asbestos,” said Dr Khatter. “This election is about trust and integrity. We are urgently pleading with P.M. Harper: Show integrity by respecting the science and put human life ahead of partisan political interests. We hope he will listen.”

Categories

Email updates

The Russian [nuclear] modernization program was spurred by the US withdrawal, under President George W. Bush in 2002, from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Moscow had for four decades regarded as a central pillar of strategic stability. Moscow’s subsequent failure to reach a new agreement with the United States on missile defenses, and the collapse […]